‘Fog’ rolls in for helmer

Wainwright's in the clear for frightener redo

Revolution Studios has set Rupert Wainwright to direct “The Fog,” the remake of the 1980 John Carpenter film that’s been set for a March start date and an Oct. 21 release.

Carpenter and co-producers Debra Hill and David Foster sparked to Wainwright’s fright fest “Stigmata.” The helmer came in to the “Fog” redux with a take that involves fleshing out a storyline that was described verbally in the first film.

The original — which Carpenter made for $1 million, using dry ice and a fog machine — began in a Northern California coastal town, with ghosts coming to kill ancestors of the locale’s founders who had double-crossed a shipload of lepers who’d bought the village.

“John laid the groundwork for a very classy, scary movie, and Rupert came in with a take that honors the original but builds on it and stamps it as his own,” said Hill, who was Carpenter’s longtime partner. “For us as filmmakers, the opportunity to use special effects to enhance the fog and make it an actual character in the film is very appealing.”

Revolution had cause to accelerate the pace of a pic that has been scripted by Cooper Layne. The success of horror films “Saw” and “The Grudge” made the late-October date a desirable one. Shane Riches is co-producing the pic.